Aaron Broussard's prosecutors Thursday rejected his latest attack on the U.S. attorney's office as "unsupported allegations" that amount "to nothing more than a legally impermissible 'fishing expedition.'" They asked U.S. District Judge Hayden Head Jr. to deny the former Jefferson Parish president's requests for a hearing into prosecutorial misconduct and recusal of their office.

Their response came on the deadline day that Head set for them to answer Broussard's sweeping motion, itself a response to the scandal that hobbled the U.S. attorney's office through much of 2012. But in dismissing Broussard's assault, prosecutors repeatedly made one point: He's still an avowed felon.

"Noticeably absent in Broussard's motion ... is any request to withdraw his plea of guilty and his sworn admissions of guilt to the charges against him," said assistant U.S. attorneys Brian Klebba, Matthew Chester and Daniel Friel.

Broussard, one of the most colorful and enduring politicians in modern Jefferson history, pleaded guilty Sept. 25 to conspiracy and theft stemming from his six years as parish president. His parish attorney, Tom Wilkinson, also has admitted guilt, as has his chief administrative officer, Tim Whitmer; his ex-wife, Karen Parker; and Kenner businessman Bill Mack. None has been sentenced.

The case took a turn Nov. 20, however, when then-U.S. Attorney Jim Letten told Head that First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Maselli Mann had been using an online alias to comment on NOLA.com stories about the Broussard case and other federal prosecutions. Letten and Mann both retired, months after Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone, a prolific online commentator, resigned.

Letten's disclosure provided an opening for Broussard's attorney, Robert Jenkins, who used it to demand the disqualification of the U.S. attorney's office and a judicial investigation of the prosecution. He raised the specter of misconduct in Letten's office, alleging selective prosecution and grand jury leaks, and sought a review of grand jury transcripts. (Read the Broussard motion.)

The defense tactic represents a gamble that it can scuttle, or at least stymie, the prosecution. The risk, however, is that the government ultimately could take Broussard to trial on all 27 charges in his indictment, exposing him to far more prison time than the maximum 15 years he faces for the two counts to which he has pleaded guilty.

In their response Thursday, Klebba, Chester and Friel said Jenkins' motion is overblown.

"The only new piece of information even remotely relevant to Broussard's case is that ... Mann had anonymously commented online," they wrote. "... From that single piece of information, Broussard extrapolates a host of vague and unsupportable conspiracy theories." (Read the prosecution's response.)

Over and over again, they cite Broussard's unchallenged guilty plea as trumping his latest attempt to undermine the case. "His failure to seek to withdraw those admissions render his allegations and arguments moot, waived or fatally flawed," they wrote.

Judge Hayden Head Jr.Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Whether Head buys their argument remains to be seen. Over the summer, before it was disclosed that Mann was expounding online about federal cases, the judge denied Broussard's first motion to disqualify the U.S. attorney's office.

To buttress their latest argument, prosecutors appended to their response a transcript of Broussard's arraignment detailing his guilty plea. (Read the transcript.) And they noted that upon leaving the courthouse that day, Broussard greeted a bystander by admitting his guilt to her, too. (See the video.)

At any rate, they wrote, disqualifying the U.S. attorney's office, as Broussard requested, would be an unprecedented move. "Recusal of the entire U.S. attorney's office has been denied as unavailable to defendants by every circuit court to have considered the issue."

They also deny that Broussard was selectively prosecuted, pointing out co-defendants Wilkinson and Parker and the related cases of Whitmer and Mack.